The Facts of Life Reunion

Infobox Film
name = The Facts of Life Reunion


image_size =
caption =
director = Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
producer = Greg Copeland
writer = Max Enscoe
Annie deYoung
narrator =
starring = Charlotte Rae
Lisa Whelchel
Mindy Cohn
Kim Fields
music = Steve Dorff
cinematography = Lawrence Sher
editing = Ben Weissman
distributor = ABC
released = November 18, 2001
runtime = 120 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0294564

"The Facts of Life Reunion" is a 2001 two-hour made-for-television movie based on the 1979-1988 sitcom "The Facts of Life" reuniting original cast members Charlotte Rae, Lisa Whelchel, Mindy Cohn and Kim Fields thirteen years later. Nancy McKeon did not attend due to scheduling conflicts with her television series "The Division".

The movie aired as a presentation of "The Wonderful World of Disney" on ABC Sunday November 18, 2001 and was produced by Berger Queen Productions in association with Laurence Mark Productions, Columbia/Tristar and Touchstone Television.

ynopsis

A widowed Mrs. Garrett is heading back to America on a cruise ship, ready for a new life and also looking forward to seeing her "girls" again, all of whom have grown into successful, independent women:

* Blair is married to Tad Warner and together they have built a hotel empire, Warner Enterprises; they have no children.
* Tootie, now preferring to be called by her real name, Dorothy, is the host of her own talk show, "Wake Up with Dorothy," and the single mother of a 10-year-old girl.
* Natalie is a dedicated TV news producer juggling an active love life with a frenetic work schedule that takes her all over the world.
* Jo is a devoted police officer who is still married to Rick and the mother of a teenage daughter.

Natalie has talked all the girls and Mrs. Garrett into spending the Thanksgiving holiday together back in Peekskill, NY. When Jo is unable to attend the reunion, her teenage daughter, Jamie, comes instead in her absence. Trouble soon starts when Natalie receives two different marriage proposals, so it's up to the girls to help solve Natalie's predicament. Over the course of the holiday, the girls reveal to one another the personal troubles they face in their adult years and discover that, despite the time that has passed, they need each other's friendship more than ever.

Cast

*Charlotte Rae - Mrs. Garrett
*Lisa Whelchel - Blair Warner
*Mindy Cohn - Natalie Green
*Kim Fields - Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey
*Joel Brooks - Raymond Garrett
*Carl Marotte - Rick Bonner
*Mallory Margel - Jamie Bonner
*Kevin Jubinville - Tad Warner
*Alexandra Johnson - Tisha Ramsey

Production Notes

* "The Facts of Life Reunion" was filmed from September 10, 2001 to October 8, 2001 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
* The movie's final ratings were 11.5 million viewers, 7.1 rating, 11 share; it ranked #51 out of about 123 shows.
* In an interview, Lisa Whelchel said that when they filmed inside the Eastland cafeteria, the set designers had the model of the original set recreated inside a church fellowship hall in Toronto.
* All the outdoor scenes in Peekskill, NY were shot during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
* Nancy McKeon said about the reunion: "'I'm just not a fan of that kind of thing. I would not watch it, so why would I be in it? It's just never the same". Originally, McKeon met with the reunion's producers early on and offered to direct the movie. "I suggested that Jo be dead and that everybody come to her funeral and we do something like "The Big Chill", she recalls.
* The reunion airs sporadically in the U.S. on the ABC Family Channel.
* In Italy, the movie was never aired on TV, but it was sold on VHS (called Quattro amiche, nuovi amori) in 2002.

External links

* [http://www.televisionhits.com/factsoflifereunion/ The Facts of Life Reunion Site]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294564/ The Facts of Life Reunion] at IMDB
* [http://www.sitcomsonline.com/thefactsoflife.html The Facts of Life @ Sitcoms Online]